Members of Congress are decrying the Transportation Security Administration’s decision to sign a $50 million contract to buy uniforms just a week before sequestration took effect.

TSA defends the deal — noting that its old contract had expired, and saying that without a new one it couldn’t have continued buying uniforms for airport screeners. And the agency says $50 million is a ceiling, not the amount it intends to spend on uniforms in the next year.

But the optics of such a big, badly timed contract are horrible, lawmakers said Wednesday.

“When we’re losing essential services and they’re closing down or threatening to close down all sorts of important government activities, to have them cut the deal on $50 million for uniforms is absolutely outrageous,” John Mica (R-Fla.) told POLITICO.

Mica, a former House Transportation chairman, is a frequent critic of TSA and now helms an Oversight panel with broad jurisdiction over government spending. He said he’s “working feverishly” on digging into TSA’s finances.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), another TSA critic, said in a statement that “I find it deeply disturbing that as [Homeland Security] Secretary [Janet] Napolitano is running around scaring people by saying she is going to have to furlough employees because of sequester, that she would also spend $50 million of taxpayer money on new uniforms. This is a classic failure in leadership.”

Republicans aren’t the only ones raising questions. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, disputed TSA’s assertion that the contract couldn’t have been handled differently.

Thompson said he has been looking into the department’s contracting as a whole and whether it could be done more efficiently. He said the uniform contract is “one of many” incidents that have raised eyebrows.

“Contracting as usual doesn’t necessarily say that it couldn’t have been done better,” Thompson said. “As you know, DHS as a whole has been criticized because of the management and purchasing that they do.”

The contract issue comes while the agency is still defending its move to allow small knives on planes — but not full-size toiletries like toothpaste or shampoo.

A story posted Tuesday on the conservative website CNSNews.com and elsewhere says TSA signed the $50 million, one-yearcontract in spite of the “impending sequester” and noted that the uniforms are partly made in Mexico.

But a TSA official said the contract was routine, and that TSA uniforms are among the cheapest of any worn by federal employees.

“Fifty million dollars represents the contract’s maximum value, not the amount expended,” the TSA official said.

TSA’s old contract for uniforms expired on Feb. 17, necessitating a “contract bridge.” Less than a week later, on Feb. 22, the agency awarded a $50 million contract for one year with an option for a second year.

The contract amount is about one-eighth of the $396 million budget hit that TSA took when the sequester took effect Friday.

The new contract is only a short-term measure — TSA and Customs and Border Protection are working to secure a joint contract for uniforms for employees at both agencies. The new TSA contract fills in the gap before the agencies can team up.

The White House has declined to discuss the issue. Asked about it at his daily press briefing on Tuesday, press secretary Jay Carney referred questions to TSA. “Obviously TSA would be well-suited to answer it, as would DHS. I am not aware of it,” he said.

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) has even tried to link the uniform flap to claims by fellow GOP Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) that the Department of Homeland Security had deliberately planned to release “thousands of criminal aliens” to cope with the sequester.

Broun has maintained for months that TSA Administrator John Pistole needs to resign. He reiterated that desire Wednesday.

“We saw the Department of Homeland Security release 2,000, maybe now 5,000, illegal alien criminals into the general population of the United States. And at the same time, going out and buying uniforms for their TSA agents just points out the president has a different agenda,” Broun said in an interview. “The whole department needs to be changed. We need to have a focus on those who want to harm us.”

TSA uniforms have been in Republican crosshairs before. In 2011, Blackburn introduced a bill — the Stop TSA’s Reach In Policy Act — that would have forced agency employees to wear uniforms that look less like what law enforcement officials wear. Some TSA uniforms feature patches and gold badges like those of police officers.

Blackburn then offered the proposal as an amendment to a DHS spending bill in 2012, but it was easily rejected.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 4:38 p.m. on March 6, 2013.